Device for preventing collisions at sea.



G. ERDMANN 8: FISCHER.

c. rzscasa GUARDIAN or G. mscazx. AN INSANE PERSON.

DEVICE FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS AT SEA.

APPLICATION TILED 0GT.21, 1907.

9 L Wm MW 9% w n. 5 ma 2.: m 7 y L wzwm 9 m/ m/ W 7 Z M w i n) .h 3 S 4 w m wdn G. ERDMANN & G. FISCHER.

0 FISCHER, GUARDIAN OF G. FISCHER. AN INSANE PERSON.

DEVICE FOR PREVENTING GOLLISIONS AT SEA.

APPLICATION FILED OCT.21, 1907.

Patented Mar. 9, 1909,

3 SHLIBTS-SHBBT 2.

and

G. ERDMANN & G. FISCHER.

0 FISCHER GUARDIAN OF G. FISCHER. AN INSANE PERSON.

DEVICE FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS AT SEA.

APPLICATION FILED 0GT.21,1907,

9 1i 4,%83 Patented Mar. 9, 1909.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

o rEn sriras PATENT orrroaeEoRG ERDMANN, or BERLIN, AND CLARA FISCHER, or OHARLOTTENBURG, GERMANY,

GUARDIAN or GOTTHOLD FISCHER, A INSANE PERSON.

DEVICE FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS AT SEA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

7 Patented March 9, 1909.

' Application filed October 21, 190.7. Serial No. 398,522.

To all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORG ERDMANN' and GoTTnoLn FrsonER, insane, (CLA A FrsonER, guardian,)' subjects of the Ger-e man Emperor, residing at Berlin and Charlottenbnrg, respectively, both in Germany, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Preventing Collisions at Sea, of which'the following is a specification.

The purpose of this invention is to pro- I vide improved ap aratus for automatically preventing the co ision'of ships at-sea and thereby obviating the dangers" attending navigation in foggy weather and by night. Entirely automatic action of apparatus used for this .purpose has hitherto only been obtained by using purely mechanical devices, namely by utilizing, for the actuation of the apparatus, the shocks produced by the impact of solidbodies carried by the ships. These known mechanical devices are extremel complicated and expensive and also have the disadvantage that they only protectthe ships from the dangers of collisions threatened at certain parts Where the feelers provided for the reception of the shocks or impact are arranged.

For preventing collisions of railway trains, that is to say of vehicles which are confined to traveling on rails in' certain predetermined directions, it has already been proposed to .use apparatus adapted to be actuated by electric waves of predetermined length and frequency, so that certain transmitters on trains traveling in one direction are tuned to co-act with certain receivers on trains traveling in the opposite direction. Since ships are not confined to exactly predetermined paths or courses arrangements of this kind are unsuitable for sea traffic. The devices hitherto known for protecting sea trafiic in fogs or by night, so far as they depend u on the action of electric waves, are exclusive y used for producing signals, and since there is no guarantee that the signals will beheeded in time to prevent accidents,

theseknown devices do not afford sufficient security. 1

- The present invention utilizes the fact,

its center, for instance by regulating the site a fixed contact H length of the sparks and the'antennae or sky wires used v The object of the invention is to automatically produce the stoppage of the ships as carried by the two ships traveling in predetermined directions. Figs. 3 and 4 illus trate the arrangement of two installations, complementary to each other for protecting two ships traveling in arbitrary directions. Figs. 5 to 7 illustrate. details of the apparatus.

.In. connection with signaling arrange ments it is already known, to prevent the actuation of a receiver by a transmitter on the same ship by causing the respective circuits to be alternately closed and interrupted b means of an' automatic switch. If a sirni ar arrangement were adopted on both ships it might of course occur that the two automatic switches were acting synchronously, that is to say, that alternately both receivers and both transmitters were out-ofaction, in which case the apparatus would of course be inoperative. This possibility can however be avoided by causing the. alternate make and break of the circuits to take place on only one of theships, and kee ing one circuit on the other ship normally open. An arrangement of this kind is shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 shows an installation of an induction apparatus 0), the primary circuit 1 of which contains a weak battery I) and a normally open switch 0 with means of automatically closing the latter; the secondary circuit 2 contains the transmitter d.

The lever h in Fig. 2 has in addition to the projection k a projection 7L located oppo-' From this contact H a wire 5 leads to an electro-magnet q,

1 battery 1" and lever-bearing h, and-thence to the contact 7H Opposite the electro-magnet q is an armature lever S, which is fixed to the pivoted switch lever 0 Vv'hen the coherer 6 becomes conductive the circuit 4 is closed for the purpose. of producing actua tion of the rod p connected to the throttle the circuit 3 valve, and at the same time'the circuit 5 is closed, so that the electro-magnet g attracts the armature s and closes the circuit 1. The transmitter (1 then remains in action until the switch 0 is opened again by hand.

The installation 11 (Fig. l) on the other ship comprises in addition to a transmitter a coherer e and an automatic switch. The latter consists, in its most simple form of a rapidly rotating wheel t, having a segmental strip of metal t fixed to its circumference, but 7 otherwise not electrically conductive. This wheel is in contact with two pairs of contact-springs u, arranged respectively in the .circuit 2 of the transmitter and in the circuit 3 of the coherer e. The two pairs of springs 11. are so arranged that the cannot be simultaneously in contact with the contact strip t In the installation 11 (Fig. 1) the receiver circuit and accessory parts are exactly similar to the corresponding parts in the installation I (Fig. 2), and in the drawing like letters and numerals are used to indicatethe respective parts, but with the index 1 in Fig. 2 an the index 2 in Fig. 1.

With theap aratus shown 111 Fig. 2 the excitation of t e magnet g, which occurs when the coherer e is acted on by electric waves, not only causes the rod 1) to be actuated to stop the engines of the ship carrying the installation I, but also causes the transmitter circuit 1 to be closed, so that the transmitter d acts onthe coherer e which produces the stoppage of the engines of the ship carrying the installation 11 by closing which energizes the magnet 9 W, closing contact at h thus closing circuit 4 energizing 1 attracting m and causing P2 to stop the engine. The continued working of the transmitter d attracting after the stopping of the en ines of the ship.

by which it is carried'not o y serves to stop the engines of the ship carrying the installation II, but also affords a safeguard against the approach of other ships provided with similar a aratus. For the same reason it is desira ie that the transmitter (1 should also continue to work uninterruptedly. For this p ose the rotation of the wheel t is automatically stopped in a position in which it closes the circuit 2 of the transmitter 01 V' is a lateral boss fixed to the wheel t and rovided with a single tooth V W is a ever fulcrumed at W and connected to a spring Y so that its arm W, is normally held in contactwith an abutment Z. The arm WV, constitutes the armature of an electromagnet X, the coils of which magnet form part of a circuit 6 which is closed at H", when the lever h is rocked by the magnet 9 The arm W of the lever W is adjacent the boss V, but when the lever is in its normal position the tooth V clears the said arm durference of ing the rotation of the wheel t. When, however, the lever W is rocked by the action of the electro magnet X the arm \/V is moved into the path of the tooth and prevents further rotation of the wheel.

The apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2 has the disadvantage that the installations on the two ships are not exactly alike, and the desired effect is not produced, if two ships both provided with installations like that shown in Fig. 2 approach each other, since in that case neither of the transmitters is in action. On the other hand, in the'case of the. meeting of two ships carryin installations with ordinary automatic ma e and break switches in their receiver and transmitter circuits, it may be the two automatic switches are working synchronously. This latter dangermay in practice be obviated b arranging that no two automatic switches ave the same w0rking-period,.but even in that case the period of one switch may be a multiple of the period of the other switch, and one of the receivers may not be acted on during the periods when its circuit is closed. In view of this it is preferable to make the arrangement as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in which both installations have automatic switches 't t provided with automatic stopping mechanism similar to that shown in Fig. 1. The switches c and c on the two ships are in this case both closed by hand at the setting in of foggy weather and the beginning of each night. With this arrangement the action of electric waves transmitted from either ship to the receiver of the other ship causes the automatic switch on the latter to be stopped in a position ter. circuit; Electric waves are therefore, continuously transmitted from the ship alreadyv stopped, and these waves act, of course, on t e receiver of the ship'still in motion.

in which it closes the transmit- A preferred form of construction of the automatic switch is illustrated in Figs. 5 to 7. On a plate A is mounted a sprin -mo tor B connected by means of two toothe wheels 0 and D to a hollow shaft E of insulatin material. To the shaft E are fixed four dis s F, G, H, I insulated from each other with their circumferences in contact with suitabl supported springs K, L, M, N. The disk consists of lnsulating material and has fixed to its circumference three segmental metal strips 1 I I insulated from each other. From these metal stri s wires lead respectively to the metal-disks F and H and to' a segmental metal-strip G fixed to the circumthe non-metallic disk G. The contact s rings K, L, M are respectively connecte to a terminal of the transmitter cir-' cuit, a terminal of the receiver circuit, and a terminal of the electric tapping apparatus acting on the coherer. This tapping apparatus is not illustrated in the drawings. The

, they other terminals of these circuits are connected to the contact spring N. The segmental strips are so arranged relatively to each other that the circuits of the tapping a paratus, receiver and transmitter are a ternately closed in the order of succession in which are here named. For additional security of insulation the s ring L connected to the receiver slides on t e non-conductive surface of the disk G for a brief period before and after the transmitter circuit is closed.

What We claim as this invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 2-? 1. Apparatus for preventing collision at sea comprising in combination a self-acting transmitter of electric waves located on a collidable object, means for continuously. op erating said transmitter, a receiverfor such waves located on another collidable object I being a shi an electric circuit adapted to be sea comprising in combination a self-acting,

transmitter of electric waves located on acollidable object, means for continuously operating said transmitter, a receiver for such waves located on another collidable object being a ship, an electric circuit adapted to be closed by the action of said waves on the receiver, mechanism actuated by current flow- .ing through the receiver circuit for stopping the engines of the ship, a second transmitter of electric waves located-on the ship, an automatic make and break switch adapted to alternately break the receiver circuit and sec of electric waves located on one collidable obj ect, a receiver for such waves located on the other collidable object, an electric circuit adapted to be closed by the action of said waves on the receiver, mechanism actuated by current flowing through the receiver .circuit forstopping the engines of a ship, a second transmitter ofelectric waves located on the last mentioned'collidable object, and an automaticmake and break switch adapted to alternately break the receiver circuit and second transmitter circuit, said switch comprising a stationary contact, a rotatory disk, segmental contact stripsonsaid disk adapted to successively slideon said stationary contact, conductive connections between said strips and terminals of one sign of the receiver and second transmitter circuits, and conductive connections between the stationary contact and terminals of the other sign of said circuits.

In witness whereof we have signedthis specificatiomin the presence of two witnesses.

GEORG ERDMANN. CLARA FISCHER. Witnesses I HENRY HASPER, WOLDEMAR HAUPT. 

